The effects of market liberalization on the gender wage gap in transition economies

A transition economy is usually used to describe one that changes from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. The specialties of transition economies serve as a unique opportunity to examine the effects of market liberalization on gender wage gap. In this dissertation, I analyze the gender wage gap over time in three distinct transition economies---China, Russia and East Germany. The gender wage gaps in these countries are found to share certain similarities.;Firstly, I discuss the gender wage gap over time in China by using the CHIP 1995, 2002 and 2007. The paper finds an increasing gender wage gap over time in China. Moreover, the growing ownership units and industry categories in China's economy are the more decentralized ones and the gender wage gap is larger in these decentralized ownership units and industry categories than their centralized counterparts.;Secondly, I examine the gender wage gap over time in Russia by using the RLMS data from 1994 to 2012. The results in the paper suggest that the Russian gender wage gap has increased over time for all wage positions. Meanwhile, employees in the decentralized ownership units and industries are found to enjoy on average higher wages than employees in the centralized ones. The empirical analysis in this study indicates that the gender wage gap in the decentralized ownership units or industries is always bigger than the gap in the centralized ones. Moreover, working in a decentralized enterprise or industry can increase males' earnings by a higher percentage than females' earnings.;Lastly, I explore the gender wage gap in East Germany over time by using the G-SOEP from 1992 to 2008. My investigation shows that the gender wage gap in the more decentralized ownership units or industries is bigger than the centralized ones in East Germany. In addition, working in a more competitive or decentralized enterprise or industry can increase males' earnings by a higher percentage than females' earnings. In all, as a result of the specialties of East Germany, the increase of gender wage gap which happens in most transition economies is not widely observed.